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Plastic or Feather ?

Hi guys

Should i be playing with feathers ? I am 16 and i play with mavis 10's (blue) at the moment. I have mavis 2000's and i don't like them (i kept hitting it out) i also have carlton GT1 tournament grade feathers which are worse than the mavis 2000's. I am an intermediate player and i play for a league

If you're a broke student...play with plastics as you'll get more games out of it.

If you have money to spare...play with feathers (each tube comes with 12 shuttles and will last...hopefully...1 game). Keep used beat up shuttles for practice.

If you are wanting to be really serious about badminton...go for feathers. Feathers are a different feel and (imo) you can get a better game out of it. You can get better net shots/drops/tumbles with feathers.

My casual recreational group tried feathers for the first time yesterday. They were pleasantly surprised at how different it was compared to plastics. The girls commented on how easier it was to do a clear with feathers. All of them like the feathers more but dislike the costs.

Should i be playing with feathers ? I am 16 and i play with mavis 10's (blue) at the moment. I have mavis 2000's and i don't like them (i kept hitting it out) i also have carlton GT1 tournament grade feathers which are worse than the mavis 2000's. I am an intermediate player and i play for a league

Mavis 2000 gives the BEST true flight among all the Yonex Mavis, I have tried all of them from Mavis 10, 300, 350, 370, 500 and now we are strictly using only Mavis 2000. It is as close to feathers as you can get at the moment and with the CORK shuttlehead, it also feel likewise on impact.

Do note that no matter how good it is, nothing beats FEATHERS esp good one. I do suggest that you find the BEST feathers that you can comfortably AFFORD and then compare against Mavis 2000, and then make your final call from there.

In our group here in Malaysia, we train with Mavis 2000 but play with feathers.

For BIG HITTERS and SMASHERS, yes, the difference is more pronounced as the bird will zip like "on steroids" . Basically, if you smash hard, SURE WINNER ... (maybe that is PLUS POINT instead of neagtive !)

For stroke and rally players, almost like feather, Mavis 2000 uses natural cork just like normal shuttle. From my untrained non-technical eyes, I think the difference in "feel" (not flight, timing or consistency) from what I can see is how the skirt is attached to the cork compared to indvidual feather being glued to the cork ... hence, when you whacked the birdy, you get a different "FEEL" ...

NOTE: Yonex emphasised that Mavis 2000's (or other Mavis for that matter) flight, timing and consistency is as close to real feathers ... that is VERY TRUE !! Many of us testify that it almost as good as Aerosensa 30 in these aspects

HOWEVER, they NEVER MENTIONED ABOUT THE "FEEL" ... cannot quantify and measure that ... TOO ABSTRACT!!

So, while Mavis 2000 can replicate the TECHINCAL/MECHANICS of a real feather almost to perfection, it cannot duplicate the "feeling" of hitting a real feather YET ...

If you play outside of school and do many tournaments, I suggest featehred. If you play only for school then stick to plastic. If you do both, then I'd suggest feathered for off season and plastic during season

I also had the problem of hitting the Mavis 2000's but only because I bought the wrong speed shuttle. I live in Calgary Canada and because of our altitude, we need to use SLOW shuttles. I had ordered the green cap, but ended up with blue due to an error and decided to use them anyway.

The are much better than any other plastic I have tried, and if you tip them, they work just fine. Although like Maxout mentioned, they don't FEEL like a feather shuttle.

Don't throw your 2000s out. Tip them using the following method.

Keep a pot of gently boiling water on the stove, and a bowl of cold water nearby. Dip each shuttle skirt into the boiling water briefly. ONLY THE SKIRT!!! don't get the cork wet. For me, I found about 3 seconds in the water was enough.

As soon as you pull the shuttle out, dip it in the cold water.

Work one shuttle at a time.

What you will find is that the skirt expands a little bit. You'll notice the difference when you put the shuttle back into the tube... it will be much more snug. The wider skirt makes the shuttle fly slower. Maybe try ONE shuttle before you do the whole tube, just to see how much you need to tip them.

I haven't noticed any aberrant flight paths during play, and with this method, I have all my 2000 blue flying at the same speed as my 350 greens.

Once you have proper racket skills, hitting a feather shuttle, esp. good ones like Aeroplane, is a first-class enjoyment. You would never want to go back to squeeze in a smelly economy cabin, plastic. That's one of my motivations to make more $$$.